


Kopi Luac

by SecondSilk



Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Genre: Case Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-15
Updated: 2010-10-15
Packaged: 2017-10-12 16:45:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/126957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondSilk/pseuds/SecondSilk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A strange robbery needs Greg's expertise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kopi Luac

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Deepfishy](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Deepfishy).



The police officers had taped off the whole block when Sara and Greg arrived on the scene. The warehouse seemed abandoned. The tin walls were rusted where they were still attached, and the chain on the fence had been cut. Sara pushed the gate open and walked into the yard. Greg followed her, waving his torch over the ground. He paused to close the gate. It squealed loudly and one of the hinges broke.

"So much for security," he muttered.

"Anything suspicious in the yard?" Sara asked him, glancing around herself.

There were a few puddles of oily water and old tyre tracks, but nothing that looked new.

"You check 'round the back," Sara said, gesturing with the butt of her torch.

Greg scowled, but decided against protesting, and headed towards the dark pile of packing crates and the side alley. Sara marched into the warehouse proper. It echoed strangely and when she finally found the light switch the space proved to be empty except for the dead man lying face up with a bullet would in his chest. She began to collect evidence around the body, carefully taking photos of the line where the blood stopped, about half a metre from the victim's head, in an almost straight line. Greg arrived before Sara began on the body itself and walked his way slowly around the perimeter of the floor. Greg stopped about a third of the way around the warehouse and bent to look more closely at something on the floor.

"Have you found my bullet, Greg?"

"It's my bullet if I find it," Greg insisted. "But all I've got so far are some fresh coffee beans."

Sara shrugged and continued to take samples of fibre from the victim's clothes. Greg noticed up a smell, sniffed carefully and smiled, before photographing the coffee and collecting the beans.

 

"So this is good coffee?" Warrick asked, glancing at the jar of unassuming grey-green beans on the lab bench.

"Oh, no, no," Greg said. "It's the best coffee." Warrick rolled his eyes.

"Greg's theory," Sara said, half-smiling, "is that our vic was killed for his supply of coffee. And whoever did it will be able to sell the beans illegally."

"Well, then, you need to try and buy some, don't you?" Warrick said.

He took his printout with him, leaving Sara alone with an excitedly plotting Greg. To his credit, Greg did work everything out. He knew where all the coffee dealers were and who would risk their business for an illegal shipment of Kopi Luac.

"What's so special about this coffee, anyway," Sara asked, as they walked out of another store with a packet of Blue Hawaiian and no better lead.

Greg shrugged, "It tastes great and it's difficult to get. It costs three hundred dollars a pound."

"Why?"

"They have to wait for the Luacs to eat the beans and shit them out again."

Sara wrinkled her nose, and hoped that they'd be done with the coffee suppliers soon.

The next place proved more fruitful. Greg asked about Kopi Luac and the proprietor claimed to have never heard of it. Sara smiled at him and explained that they could get a warrant.

 

In the end, which was ten minutes and some quick talking from Greg later, he agreed to let them into their storeroom. He explained that his cousin was the one who organised the shipments of beans, while he just ran the shop. Greg left Sara to guard their suspect and call for the uniforms, while he followed his nose through the storeroom.

Two of the coffee bags had blood on them, so Greg claimed them both as evidence and had them driven to the lab.

"This is worth three hundred dollars a pound?" Warrick asked.

The scepticism was obvious in his voice as he scooped up a handful of beans and ran them through his fingers.

"Don't do that!"

Greg leapt from where he was testing the blood, to grab Warrick's hand away from the coffee.

"It's not," he said. "Only about ten percent of the beans are Kopi Luac. The rest are pretty good, it'll taste better than the normal stuff. But it's not worth top dollar."

"Damn."

"Yeah. The vic was smuggling it in. The cousin didn't want to pay him for the beans, so shot him instead."

"But we get to the keep the coffee?"

"There's no way of separating the beans," Greg said. "We'll just have to drink it."

"Okay, then."


End file.
